Charles Joseph La Trobe and his administration of the Wadawurrung, 1839‑1853

Maggie Black’s work as a writer has focused on disadvantaged people in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Her view of the damaging impact of contemporary forms of development on Indigenous societies is articulated in her book, International Development: Illusions and Realities (New Internationalist, 2015). This proved a useful basis for studying her great‑grandfather’s pioneering life in Victoria. Niel Black’s archive found its way to State Library Victoria thanks to Margaret Kiddle, author of Men of Yesterday (Melbourne University Press, 1961), which also drew heavily on his remarkable voice. This article is a shortened version of a chapter in the author’s Up Came a Squatter: Niel Black of Glenormiston 1839‑1880 (NewSouth, 2016)

Black Gold: Aboriginal People on the Goldfields of Victoria, 1850-1870

Fred Cahir tells the story about the magnitude of Aboriginal involvement on the Victorian goldfields in the middle of the nineteenth century. The first history of Aboriginal–white interaction on the Victorian goldfields, Black Gold offers new insights on one of the great epochs in Australian and world history—the gold story. In vivid detail it describes how Aboriginal people often figured significantly in the search for gold and documents the devastating social impact of gold mining on Victorian Aboriginal communities. It reveals the complexity of their involvement from passive presence, to active discovery, to shunning the goldfields. This detailed examination of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria provides striking evidence which demonstrates that Aboriginal people participated in gold mining and interacted with non-Aboriginal people in a range of hitherto neglected ways. Running through this book are themes of Aboriginal empowerment, identity, integration, resistance, social disruption and communication

The attraction of gold mining in Victoria for aboriginal people

Aboriginal people were a very visible presence on the goldfields in nineteenth century Victoria. This paper examines why Aboriginal people were attracted to the gold fields of nineteenth century Victoria and explores the extrinsic and intrinsic motivating factors such as new wealth, new sights, new sounds, new alliances which prompted Aboriginal people to participate in 'gold society'

What's in a name?: Exploring the implications of eurocentric (re)naming practices of aboriginal and torres strait islander nomenclature in australian education practices

The aim of this article is to provide teachers with knowledge of ways in which Eurocentric (re)naming practices inform contemporary pedagogical approaches, while providing understandings pertinent to the mandatory inclusion of the cross-curriculum priority area: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015). While we have focused on Eurocentric naming practices, we have also been conscious of names used by Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders to name themselves and others and as non-Indigenous Australians we acknowledge that it is not our place to explore these in detail, or offer alternatives. In this article, we have explored the history of nomenclature as it relates to original inhabitants, the connotations of contemporary (re)naming practices in Australian education and discussed the importance of drawing on cultural protocols and engaging local communities for teaching and learning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It is anticipated that discussions arising from this article may open up spaces where teachers may think about ways in which they approach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

What's in a name?: Exploring the implications of eurocentric (re)naming practices of aboriginal and torres strait islander nomenclature in australian education practices

The aim of this article is to provide teachers with knowledge of ways in which Eurocentric (re)naming practices inform contemporary pedagogical approaches, while providing understandings pertinent to the mandatory inclusion of the cross-curriculum priority area: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015). While we have focused on Eurocentric naming practices, we have also been conscious of names used by Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders to name themselves and others and as non-Indigenous Australians we acknowledge that it is not our place to explore these in detail, or offer alternatives. In this article, we have explored the history of nomenclature as it relates to original inhabitants, the connotations of contemporary (re)naming practices in Australian education and discussed the importance of drawing on cultural protocols and engaging local communities for teaching and learning of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. It is anticipated that discussions arising from this article may open up spaces where teachers may think about ways in which they approach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

Parish plans as a source of evidence of Aboriginal land use in the Mallee back country

The nature of Aboriginal people's use, indeed occupation, of the Victorian Mallee 'back country' warrants detailed investigation. Probably arising out of the paucity of observations of Aboriginal people on the land before it was pastorally occupied, an historical analysis from the 1870s suggesting Aboriginal people were not occupiers but mere 'seasonal visitors' to the 'back country' was unquestionably accepted for the next century. Growing understanding of the fundamentally sophisticated ways in which Aboriginal people managed their land has led to some recent historical works with a revised understanding of land use in the 'back country', but there is no agreement to move away from the orthodox historical paradigm. Parish plans from the Mallee, part of PROV's 'Parish and township plans' collection, were investigated to determine whether they contain evidence of former Aboriginal land use that could inform this question. It was found that these plans can potentially reveal the presence of pre-colonial Aboriginal water management, pathways, quarries, land management, cemeteries and placenames. Thus, parish plans were shown to be a potentially valuable resource that might have the capacity to support a reinvestigation of Aboriginal land use in the 'back country'. Approaches for a more detailed investigation of the value of these plans are suggested

Dallong : Possum skin rugs

In June 1835 John Batman, popularly acknowledged as the founder of Melbourne, recorded one of the first times that possum skin cloaks were traded by the Aboriginal people of Victoria with the European arrivals. Before he held the formal treaty meeting with the Woiwurrung clan heads near present-day Melbourne to purchase a tract of their country, Batman had distributed gifts including blankets, beads and knives. After the meeting he wrote in his journal: 'the chiefs, to manifest their friendly feeling towards me, insisted upon my receiving from them two native cloaks and several baskets made by the women, and also some of the implements of defence'.2 For the remainder of the nineteenth century these indigenous cloaks or rugs were clearly sought after by the white settlers.C

The Wathawurrung people's encounters with outside forces 1797 -1849 : a history of conciliation and conflict

Master of ArtsOne of the difficulties in writing a regional history such as this thesis was the sensitivity surrounding the appropriate choice of terminology and spelling conventions. Conflicts have arisen between conforming to the standardisations of the History Discipline and a desire to accommodate the wishes of the indigenous communities in the geographical area of this study. The absence of trained linguists in the white community during the initial colonisation period has resulted in a considerable divergence of opinion over the nomenclature and spelling derivatives surrounding the indigenous people living in what is no w known as the Geelong-Ballarat region. The first white chroniclers referred to the Wathawurrung by a myriad of different names (over 100 different names were recorded by Clark for the people in this study area) including: Watowrong, Wartowrong, Wot o wrong, Watourong, Wodowrow . Throughout the text ofthis work 1 have applied the term Wathawurrung' to all indigenous groups in primary documents that involve the known language area of the Wathawurrung. Where there is some doubt as to which tribe is being referred to 1 have included other language groups that the writer ma y have also been referring to. " From Preface

Finding Indigenous history in the RHSV collections

This paper is a fuller version of a lecture delivered at the RHSV for the Annual Melbourne Day Lecture in 2011, which focused on locating Aboriginal history in the Royal Historical Society of Victoria (RHSV) collections. This paper highlights some of my finds within the RHSV archives over the years - sometimes just a rakish sentence, and other times a major peeling back of the historical onion. In addition, the strengths and challenges of researching Aboriginal history, and specifically at the RHSV, are discussed, providing a greater indication of the enormous worth of the RHSV manuscript collection in adding to our knowledge of the impact of Aboriginal Victorians on the development of the colony

Black gold : A history of the role of Aboriginal people on the goldfields of Victoria, 1850-70

Reconstructs the history of Aboriginal people and gold mining in Victoria from 1850-1870.Doctor of Philosoph